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Thursday, June 26, 2008

The 2 year old: Mama, I see the sky!The 31 year old: It looks cloudy. Do you think it will rain?2: Who made the sky? [This is familiar ground. We cover this a lot.]31: You know. God made the sky.2: And where is God? [Why do small children take such comfort in exact repetition of questions asked and answered one million times? And why, after one million times, do I still falter on the transcript?]31: God is everywhere. [Who feels comfortable explaining this to a 2 year old, anyway? Any pointers?]2: God is everywhere?31: Yep. God is in the clouds, and in the birds and grass. [We’re driving, so I’m citing visually present examples. But do I believe what I’m saying? Can you be Jewish and have a catechism? And where do I draw the line? Is God in the asphalt and the overflowing bus stop garbage can and if God is in the birds, is God in the bird poop stains, too?]2: And God is in me?31: Yep. God is in you and in me and in Daddy and in L and in everybody.2: And God is in a purple man!

M will be getting up at 4:00 tomorrow morning, because he has a 5:10 am appointment. Downtown.

He called me this morning. He was driving to work. I was driving to work. He asked me if I was listening to the radio. I have two kids in the car. The radio might be on, but I’m fairly certain I’m not listening to it. I’m hosting a theological discussion, the substance of which is tangential to this story, so I’ll save it for the next post.

The radio has been advertising for the Friday show. Every Friday they invite a studio audience of only about a dozen or so people in to watch the show broadcast. They play games with the audience and the audience members take home a bunch of swag and can compete for prizes. He called in, and actually got through, and wants to know if anything on my schedule would interfere with me doing tomorrow morning’s routine by myself, and do I mind, because he wants to go.

Did you know his daughters have him wrapped around their respective pinkies? Do you know why he’s so excited to go to this particular Free-for-All Friday? Because in this week’s swag bag, there is a free pair of good-seats tickets to go see The Wiggles when they come to town in August. And he had the insane filled-with-love idea that scoring free tickets so he could take his elder princess on an adventure is worth waking up at 4:00 in the morning. Prince Charming, no?

So what exactly is the exciting thing that’s going to happen? Let’s break it down, you know, 1989 old skool:

Come on, come on and party hardy all night, andWiggle it just a little bit, I wanna see you wiggle it just a little bit

And now you're partyin' like you've never partied beforeYou're jumpin' up and down like crazy on the dance floor

Dancin' by yourself is bad for your healthSo grab a (two-year-old) cutie by the hand and tell her that you wanna danceWiggle it just a little bit, I wanna see you wiggle it just a little bit, as it grooves

My eternal gratitude for the lyrics and genius of 2 in a Room. Oh, and the generous spirit of my crazy co-parent. And the prospect of a quiet night in the house, even if it’s two months away.